View full sizeDavid Lassman / The Post-StandardCity councilor Pam Hunter stands outside the Public Safety Building. She has advocated a reworking of the Citizens Review Board. With all new members, the review board is expected to hire a new administrator early in 2012 and get back to work.

Syracuse, NY -- When Common Councilor Pam Hunter took it upon herself in March to revive the Syracuse Citizen Review Board, it was near extinction. The CRB’s full-time administrator had been fired a month earlier. The board members, charged with investigating complaints of police misconduct, had not held a fact-finding hearing in five years.

Only one of the board members was serving a term that had not expired. One member had died and had not been replaced. During the final seven months of 2010, the board was unable to muster a quorum.

Now, nine months after Hunter took charge, the Citizen Review Board is about to be reborn, strengthened by legislation that Hunter and a committee of city residents crafted during hours of meetings over the summer and fall. The Common Council, which this month added a few tweaks to the new law, is expected to pass it during a special session Thursday.

With all new members, the review board is expected to hire a new administrator early in 2012 and get back to work. “It seems like we’re starting from the beginning,” Hunter said. “Essentially, we are.”

Skeptics say the new board might soon confront the same old problems — including a lack of cooperation from police officers — that have frustrated the board since its inception 18 years ago.

“It’s a lot of wasted energy and money,” said Jeff Piedmonte, president of the Police Benevolent Association, the union representing police officers. “I think the problems are going to be the same problems we faced in 1994.” Piedmonte said officers will continue to resist efforts by the board to make them testify about incidents in which they or their colleagues are accused of misconduct.

The union won legal decisions during the late 1990s from courts and from the state Public Employee Relations Board that blocked the board from issuing subpoenas to officers. The union successfully argued that the city would have to negotiate a new contract provision to require officers to appear before the CRB. That’s something city officials tried but failed to do in years past.

Piedmonte said he’s ready to go to court again, if necessary. “We’ve been preparing legal papers so that if the CRB issues subpoenas again, we’ll be prepared to go back to PERB and back to court,” he said. “Because the Common Council is changing terms and conditions of our employment, it should have been negotiated with us.”

Several councilors have expressed qualms about restarting the CRB before fixing the issue of subpoenas, saying they don’t want to set up the board for failure again. But Hunter and other supporters of the new legislation say subpoenas are seldom required, and to focus on that issue misses the bigger picture. For the first time in the board’s history, they say, the council, the mayor and the police chief are all working to make it succeed.

The difference between now and the early 1990s is like “night and day,” said Nancy Keefe Rhodes, one of 11 volunteers who served on Hunter’s ad hoc committee. Keefe Rhodes also served on the 1992 task force put together by then-Councilor Charles Anderson to craft the original CRB legislation. The police chief at the time, Frank Sardino, referred to that committee as “a bunch of misfits.”

Before it met even once, Sardino pledged to ignore the board’s findings. “They can recommend whatever they want,” he said. “It won’t have any influence.”

Chief Frank Fowler, by contrast, participated in Hunter’s committee to help fashion the new law. Fowler has pledged to cooperate with the board, including the requirement that the police department’s Office of Professional Standards share its entire case file when it investigates alleged misconduct.

Fowler said the review board serves an important role as an alternate venue for people to file grievances against police if they feel uncomfortable complaining to the department. The board provides an independent review of complaints and gives input to the chief about what discipline should be imposed, he said. “It absolutely has a value for the community,” Fowler said of the board. “It’s a check and balance.”

Hunter said the board has authority to issue subpoenas and will deal with legal challenges if they arise. But subpoenas are a last resort and seldom essential, she said. More important will be timely and active investigations by the board and its administrator. “The board is not held hostage to police testimony,” she said.

Since 2000, Albany has had a Citizen’s Police Review Board that is sometimes used as a model for other cities, said its chairman, the Rev. Edward Smart. The Albany board lacks subpoena power. But it has access to video recordings from patrol car cameras and to interviews conducted by internal affairs, which review-board investigators are allowed to observe, Smart said.

The Albany board dealt with 473 complaints during its first decade and published reports quarterly about how they were resolved. Complainants are notified when their cases come before the board and given an opportunity to speak, something that improves relations between the police and the community, Smart said. “The people of the community feel that they are represented well and that they are going to get a fair opportunity to speak,” he said.

The law before the Syracuse council amends the original CRB legislation. It adds a detailed description of the duties of the paid administrator and sets out an aggressive timetable for investigating complaints.

Among the key changes:

• The board must complete its investigation of a complaint within 60 days and issue its findings to the police chief. Before, Hunter said, cases could drag on indefinitely.
• The board and the police department are to investigate complaints simultaneously. Each must notify the other of a complaint within one day. Before, the board typically waited for the department to finish its investigation before starting.
• The police chief will wait 60 days, or until the board has issued its findings, before imposing discipline.

Barrie Gewanter, director of the local chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said the expedited timeline will help the board establish credibility and relevance. Gewanter served on Hunter’s ad hoc committee

She said the new law might not solve all the problems. But if the board can establish a track record of successful operation — something it never did before — it will continue to gather support from officials and the public, she said. “This is a unique moment in time,” Gewanter said. “Everybody is on the same page for the first time in 18 years, and we have a chance to make this a viable way of reviewing complaints.”

In February, Mayor Stephanie Miner fired the former CRB administrator, Felicia Davis, saying she failed to do her job. Davis later filed a notice of claim against the city, saying Miner discriminated against her because Davis took maternity leave and broke the law by firing her. Common councilors also protested that Miner did not have authority to fire Davis.

The new law places authority over the administrator with a five-person board, including three members of the CRB, the mayor and a councilor. The law also takes steps to make sure board vacancies are filled. If the council fails to appoint any of its eight representatives on the board within 60 days, the board may nominate someone. If the mayor fails to name someone for any of the three mayoral appointees to the CRB, the council may do so after 60 days.

Keefe Rhodes said the community owes gratitude for Hunter’s long hours in the tedious job of fine-tuning the legislation. The committee met more than 15 times over six months.

Hunter, who was appointed to fill a council vacancy in March, will finish her term Saturday. Rumors have circulated that she hopes to win the job of CRB administrator, but Hunter, who works at the local office of the Epilepsy Foundation, said she’s not interested. “I will help them in a transition the best I can,” she said. “But (to be) a full-time CRB administrator? No.”

Fowler, the police chief, said Hunter should be applauded. “My hat is firmly off to her,” he said. “For her to dedicate the level of energy she did toward this CRB legislation, knowing that these were her final days on the council, is absolutely commendable.”